The plan to build a five-story restaurant on the former site of the Sari Club has caused an outcry at home and in Australia.
new object now stands at the 1,500-square-meter plot in the heart of Kuta, where the Sari Club once stood and the first explosion went off during the 2002 Bali bombing: a blue and pink development sign.
"Restaurant and monument development project," the sign reads, to the detriment of survivors and the families of the tragedy's victims.
The sign says that PT Hotel Cianjur Asri plans to build a 700 sqm restaurant on the plot.
The site is one of two locations where 202 people were killed and hundreds more were injured in a coordinated attack by violent extremists on Oct. 12, 2002.
“The sign was just installed this morning,” Febi, a local resident who runs a food stall on the otherwise empty plot, said on Thursday. She said she was told to vacate the site by May 5.
Since the 2002 terrorist attack, most of the plot has been turned into a parking lot, where a handful of food stalls have opened shop in the last few years. Just across the street stands the Ground Zero memorial, where locals and foreigners alike can pay their respects to the victims of the deadly attack.
But now, the owner of the plot has secured a building permit from Badung regency to develop the site into a 350-seat restaurant to be called the Spatula Restaurant.
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